Some ride assemblies include an audio-visual presentation including a motion picture film projector which projects frames of a motion picture film on a screen disposed at the front of the assembly. The passengers, the film projector, and the screen stay in their relatively fixed positions as the motion picture is being shown after a moveable base on which the passengers are carried has been moved to a predetermined position.
In some instances, especially when the motion picture depicts a fair amount of relative movement between an object in the motion picture and the background and/or foreground of the shown motion picture image, the viewing passengers could more realistically experience the story presented by the motion picture if the viewing passengers themselves experienced the sensation of movement at the same time they were viewing the moving object in the motion picture. It would be especially realistic to the viewing passengers if the movement experienced simulated the motion of the moving object projected on the screen. It would also be desirable to make it an easy matter to change the movement felt by the viewing passengers to simulate the motion of at least one of the moving objects shown in a different projected motion picture or a different moving object in the same motion picture. Such a ride assembly is shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 960,533, entitled Motion Picture Theatre Assembly and Method of Using Same, filed Nov. 14, 1978 and having the same inventorship as the present application.
In other instances it would be desirable to construct a ride assembly having a housing which resembles a travel vehicle and which has a moveable base on which passengers are carried and a screen, interior to the housing, on which a scene appears to move relative to an exterior to the housing when the base is moved in a preprogrammed fashion, the screen appearing to act as a window of the vehicle. It would be especially desirable if the motion experienced by the carried passengers could be realistic and at the same time accomplished in a safe, reliable and relatively inexpensive fashion.